I have created this topic for a place to run for all the much needed help I will need as I try to teach myself Greek. My first questions are about pronunciation of vowels and diphthongs.

How does the pronunciation of Î¿ and Ï‰ differ? Is it just a matter of vowel length?

I remember when learning the pronunciation of Latin that Ï… has no English equivalent, that it's a close front rounded vowel, but the book says it can be treated like the letter u or i. Should I stick to the pronunciation I use for Latin?

The book mentions that Î·Ï… is a diphthong, but gives no English equivalent, what should I use?

Should I pronounce the iota in the iota subscript?

Given there are so many vowels in words I want to make sure I am pronouncing them right, and it would also make learning the declensions a little simpler.

Personally I use the reconstructed pronunciation for Attic when I read Homer (which probably isn't all that different from his) so I'll try answering your questions from that perspective.

Bretonus wrote:How does the pronunciation of Î¿ and Ï‰ differ? Is it just a matter of vowel length?

Most likely there was also a difference in quality with Î¿ being more close and Ï‰ being more open. There's also a long close o written Î¿Ï… (which was also used to represent an original diphthong but the two later merged in pronunciation).

I remember when learning the pronunciation of Latin that Ï… has no English equivalent, that it's a close front rounded vowel, but the book says it can be treated like the letter u or i. Should I stick to the pronunciation I use for Latin?

I think it's possible that Homer still pronounced Ï… as [u] but saying [i] is kind of weird (unless you're using a fully Modern Greek pronunciation) -- personally I use [y] since that's what it was in Attic and plus I pronounce Î¿Ï… as [u:] so I don't have too much of a choice here.

The book mentions that Î·Ï… is a diphthong, but gives no English equivalent, what should I use?

I say [Îµ:u].

Should I pronounce the iota in the iota subscript?

I do but I think many people don't. Personally I think it helps distinguish cases and some other things.

Thanks for the advice, I have worked out my pronunciation to try to be a little of what I'm comfortable with, but also maintain some of the original pronunciation. Also, Modus, how were Ï† and Î¸ pronounced in Attic? If I can come up with an excuse to pronounce them like I would in English I would be very happy.

I am happy to say I am making progress in Greek, if only a little, without feeling overwhelmed, when I thought it would be much more difficult going in.

There are a lot of good reasons to pronounce Î¸ and Ï† like th and f but historical accuracy is not one of them. It seems pretty conclusive that in Attic they were still aspirated plosives (I'm convinced mostly by the fact that it was not until much later that Latin speakers identified Ï† with their f). But the fricative pronunciation is easier for English speakers (at least it is for me in terms of distinguishing Î¸ from Ï„ and so on) and there's a 2000-year long tradition of native Greek speakers pronouncing them as fricatives without loss of understanding so I'd go with what you're more comfortable with.

Bretonus wrote:I am happy to say I am making progress in Greek, if only a little, without feeling overwhelmed, when I thought it would be much more difficult going in.

That's good to hear -- I think you'll find a point where things just snowball and you start learning stuff fairly quickly, especially with Homer where it seems that once you get past the early hurdles things really smoothen out and then one day you find yourself reading a bunch of lines in a row and you understanding everything (or at least the gist of it).

The difference between the aspirated and unaspirated consonants is approximately

the 'p' in 'pin' (Ï†) versus the 'p' in 'spin' (Ï€)
and
the 't' in 'tone' (Î¸) versus the 't' in 'stone' (Ï„)

We don't normally hear the difference in English, but if you put our hand in front of your mouth when you pronounce the words, you'll find that the aspirated form is accompanied by a puff of air, while the unaspirated form is not.

Aspirating Ï† and Î¸ is not particularly difficult -- however, unaspirating Ï€ and Ï„ is challenging. For the purposes of understanding, as Modus says, using f and th is probably the most practical.